in my wildest dreams - a taylor swift fanfiction

52 - my friends from home

SKYLAR

Everyone was already up when Josh and I made it into the kitchen the next morning. Vanessa and Connor were having breakfast at the kitchen table, and Mrs. Martin sat across from them, reading the newspaper. They all looked up when they heard us entering the room.

"Good mornin' you two! Did you sleep well?" Mrs. Martin happily asked us, and we both nodded. We made ourselves some breakfast and sat down with the others, and this time I took the seat at the short end of the table.

I met Connor's eyes and tried to give him a smile, but he just looked away embarrassed. I looked over at Vanessa, but she seemed oblivious to what happened last night because she happily started up a conversation with Josh.

"So, what are y'alls plans for today?" Mrs. Martin asked, looking at all of us over the newspaper.

"Uhm, I think I wanna go visit the group home. It's been so long since I last saw everyone."

"Oh, of course! What about you two?" she asked, turning to Connor and Vanessa.

"I dunno," Connor mumbled in an almost incomprehensible manner, looking down to his plate.

"You said you'd go with me to look for a birthday gift for Maggie," Vanessa reminded him.

"Yeah, right. I guess we'll do that. And then tonight, we're going to meet up with a couple o' people at The Red Cup. If y'all're still up for it?" Connor said, looking between Josh and me.

"Yeah! For sure," I quickly replied.

We got ready for the day, and Josh and I left in his car but had to turn around again when I realized I'd forgotten to bring the bag that I had taken with me from Nashville. We pulled up in the driveway next to Mike's car, and I went around the truck to get the bag from the truck bed.

I was smiling brightly and felt a nervous ball of energy build in my stomach as we made our way to the front door. It felt strange to have to ring the doorbell and not just walk right in, but I reminded myself that it had been more than a year since I'd left and that it definitely wasn't my house anymore.

The person opening the door was Ariana. Her face displayed utter surprise at first when her eyes landed on me, but she quickly broke into a smile and jumped into my arms. "Skylar!" she squealed, and I realized that she was almost as tall as me now, even though she was two years younger.

When we'd made it into the house, Ariana shouted loudly, "Everyone, get down here! Skye is back!"

I shared an amused look with Josh, and soon enough everyone who were at the house had made it downstairs to us. Some of them — Ashley, Jade, Callie and Harper — had attended my birthday party in Nashville, but I hadn't seen the rest of them in over a year. They all led me into the living room, and I looked back over my shoulder to see Josh following close behind with his usual grin.

They had me sit on the couch with Wren and McKenna on either side of me. "Woah, y'all have grown," I said, looking around at everyone.

When I moved away from Jackson, McKenna was just about to turn five, and she had grown a lot since I last saw her.

"So have you, but you're somehow still so tiny," Callie pointed out, and I rolled my eyes at her.

Suddenly I was bombarded with questions, and I met Ashley's grin from one of the armchairs next to Callie. I tried answering as many questions as I could about what it was like living in the different cities I lived in, what Europe was like, what it was like having a mom, and the fame thing. As I was in the middle of telling them about being on Mike Ledger's — it turned out they'd all watched it together — I looked over to see Josh cheerily talking to Jade, Harper, Callie and Ashley. A wave of happiness washed over me when I saw all of them getting along, and it replaced a fear I didn't even know I'd had.